The Under-Appreciated SCPs Contest

Whoa, wait, what?

It's a contest! Specifically, it's a contest to give some love to the less well-known SCPs on the site.

We now have over 2000 SCPs at our disposal; however, only a handful of them are ever seen frequently or even semi-frequently in tales. We want to remedy this. Your challenge is to take one or more SCPs with a score of +40 or less each and write a tale involving them. How you write about them is completely up to you, but they must be featured in your tale as at least semi-important elements.

Why're you guys doing this, anyway? SCPs with fewer than forty upvotes are like that for a reason: they suck!

First, no, they don't; and second, because we have a huge library of interesting anomalous articles, yet whenever SCPs are used, it's always 682 or 173 or some other super well-known SCP. And while these popular SCPs are neat, we don't like seeing other, less popular SCPs shafted.

Contest Entries

Voting has been closed as of 11 Apr 2014 at 9:00 am CDT!

1. Exit History by HammerMaiden (+41, tied!)
1. Exploded Diagram of a Young Woman by Chubert (+41, tied!)
3. Anart Antics by TwistedGears (+38)
4. Animalia by Drewbear (+26)
5. Gourmet by Drewbear (+23)
6. A Friend's Words by GottaGoFeast (+18, tied!)
6. Little Lost Skip by MissMercurial (+18, tied!)
8. The Avian and The Amphibian by Waterfire (+14)
9. The Lady in the Tower by Bryx (+9)
10. Corroded Relations by AndarielHalo (+5)
11. Found You by EnconXV (-6)
12. Bicycle Mafia and Bike Justice in Goodbye Galaxy! by Roget (-8)
13. Hazy Scotch by CyrusFiredawn (-9)

+ Show Contest Rules

So what're the rules?

• All entries must reference or utilize one or more already existing SCPs, each with a score of less than +40. You can find a list of all SCPs with a rating of +40 or less at the time of this contest posting here.
• Entries must list the SCPs used in the comments section, or link them within the tale itself.
• Authors can have up to two entries. Normally contests like this limit authors to one entry, but we want as many lesser-known SCPs represented as humanly possible (without going too overboard, of course!). Collaborations are okay; however, for the sake of everyone's sanity, no more than two authors per collab.
• Entries must be new. That is, you can't submit a Tale that already existed before this contest started.
• All entries must use the form below to submit their tale. Any entry for the contest that does not will be deleted, though the author will be allowed to repost using the form.
• No significant edits to entries once they're posted.¹
• Entries will be posted on this page once the submission period ends. Until then, entries will only be visible to the authors and site admins.
• Even though entries are hidden, site rules still apply: unfinished work, trolling attempts, and other disallowed content will be summarily removed by site staff.
• After voting is enabled, entries that fall below -10 are subject to standard deletion procedures. In these situations, rewrite requests will be reviewed on a case by case basis.
• All entries must be posted by 3/28/2014 at 12 AM CST.
• Voting will begin 3/28/2014 at 12 AM CST and will stay open until 4/11/2014 at 12 AM CST. Voting will not be enabled on contest entries until the voting period begins.
• Entries must be rated +20 when the voting period ends in order to be considered. If there aren't any that clear that threshold, there won't be a winner.
• The Tale with the highest vote-count wins. In the event of a tie, BATTLE ROYALE staff will look at the entries and do a super vote or something.

What's this form you're going on about?

Aelanna has graciously provided us with an awesome form for entrants to use when submitting their tale. As mentioned above, please use this form when entering the contest. Please do not post your entry without using this form.

Contest submission is now closed!

Enough about the rules. What do I get if I win?

The winner will get to pick one of their own articles to be featured on the Front Page. If a collab wins, each author will get to choose one of their articles to be featured, with scheduling at Admin discretion.²

I have other questions. If I bombard you with them now, will you answer all of them immediately right here right now?

Please don't, my poor little time schedule won't allow it. :(

But for real, if you have any other questions, go ahead and ask in the comments and, if they're significant enough, we'll post & answer 'em here on the page.

Are contestants allowed to vote on other entries?

Yes, provided you're not maliciously downvoting other entries. If you are, then we're gonna go ahead and disregard your votes and may or may not disqualify you from the contest. Seriously, downvoting other peoples stuff just to try and win? That's low.

Are contestants allowed to write about their own SCPs?

Yes, you are completely free to write about your own SCPs if you want. Just don't post a new SCP and then write about that, because that would be kind of weird.

What about joke/explained/decommissioned/archived SCPs?

As this contest is intended to generate awareness for under-appreciated articles, we ask that you don't use decommissioned or archived articles. -J and -EX articles are fair game, however.

Does cleaning up purple prose count as "changing content" for purposes of whether you're allowed to make the edit?

Yes, cleaning up purple prose does count as changing content.

Can I remove my entry to rewrite it, then resubmit it?

Nope. Sorry, but you thought it was good enough to submit, so you're going to have to deal with it as-is. Besides, that's rather blatantly an attempt to change content, which is already against the rules. You're always free to rewrite and repost AFTER the contest, though.

Can I use SCPs with higher individual scores if I meet the contest requirements?

So long as you're giving the SCPs that qualify for the contest equal or greater love, go for it. Just don't make a tale that goes "Oh 343 showed up, _{and he was standing next to these less important SCPs} THEN HE STARTED DOING AWESOME THINGS". C'mon now.

Oh man dude I'm totes going to write a meta tale and junk!

While you are perfectly free to write whatever you want for the contest, we highly suggest writing a non-meta tale. Let your narrative be enough to win the people over!

Oh god, how long do I have to post?!

Sorry, post time is up!

Footnotes

1. Basic edits for spelling, punctuation, formatting, and grammar are acceptable. Changes to the actual content are not.

2. This is just so if both authors want to feature the same type of article, we don't have to try to feature them simultaneously!